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Story Saturday: "Princess Godmother"

"Princess Godmother"

Once upon a time, Princess Julia found herself in a hopeless situation. A greedy soldier from an enemy kingdom had kidnapped her while she was asleep and locked her in his kingdom's dungeon. She knew she had to escape. What she didn't know was how. Her arms and legs were shackled to the wall, and she hadn't eaten in days. Her tattered nightgown would have made it difficult for anyone to believe she was a princess even if she did find a way to escape. She refused to tell her captors anything about her father's armies or plans to defeat them, for she knew they needed her alive so they could continue to use her as collateral to control her father. Her captors did not seem all that smart to her. If she could only free herself from these shackles, she knew she could find a way to escape.

Meanwhile, in the realm of magic, Florindia, Princess Julia's Fairy Godmother was also hard at work trying to figure out a way for her escape. She cursed her poor fortune to be tasked with something so difficult at such a young age. The older Fairy Godmothers always seemed to know exactly what to do when their princesses were in trouble. Florindia never seemed to get anything right. She could barely even hold onto her wand half the time. None of her elaborate plans to rescue Princess Julia seemed practical enough. She suggested transporting the entire dungeon to her own realm and free Julia there, where she would be safe, but the other Fairy Godmothers told her that making an entire room disappear would destroy the foundation of the structure it came from, causing it to collapse. Florindia certainly didn't want the destruction of another castle resting on her conscience. Besides, she didn't have enough power for such a large spell.

When she felt she had exhausted every possibility, Florindia decided to go to her princess and figure it out from there. So, with a wave of her wand, she teleported herself just outside the locked door to Julia's cell, even though she had meant to teleport inside. Somehow, she had managed to botch that up too. If she only had a little more time, she could have figured out how to get in the cell, but unfortunately for her, the guards were watching and noticed her sudden appearance. In a last-minute attempt to teleport into the cell, Florindia pointed her wand between the bars. The guards startled her with their cries of protest, causing her to accidentally drop the wand inside the cell. Without her magic to protect her, the only thing left to do was run. The guards chased after her.

Princess Julia watched the spectacle curiously through the bars, wondering who the glittering young woman was and what she had dropped inside her cell. The wand rolled right in front of the princess, allowing her to pick it up with her limited mobility. It glowed with an otherworldly presence, like something she had read about in storybooks. Could it really be magic? Perhaps this was just what she needed. She pointed it toward her shackles and focused as hard as she could on freeing herself. To her amazement, the binds on her arms and legs fell off and landed on the ground with a clank. Wasting no time, she used the wand to focus on unlocking the door to her cell. It worked! Julia was finally free.

She ran as fast as she could toward the exit when she saw some guards coming back to return to their posts. Ducking into a corner before they saw her, Julia tried to use the wand to send all the guards away. Sparks flew from it, and she felt the wand try to fly out of her hands. She calmed herself down and felt the wand settle its magic along with her. Perhaps sending that many people away would be too much magic for her to handle. Instead, she focused as hard as she could on being invisible. Her hands disappeared in front of her as they clutched the wand, so she assumed it had worked. She continued toward the exit when she saw the mysterious young woman who had dropped the wand walking in circles, looking very confused. Julia grabbed her hand, startling the glittering maiden, who almost screamed and gave away their location. Quickly, Julia covered Florindia's mouth with her hand and led her out of the castle into an alcove where no one was looking. Then, Julia made herself visible again.

Florindia couldn't believe her eyes when both her princess and her wand appeared before her. She explained to Julia that she was her Fairy Godmother and apologized for taking so long to come to her rescue. Then, she suggested making the entire enemy kingdom disappear in order to save Julia's father the trouble of defeating them. In the little time Julia had spent using magic, she had learned that the wand was only useful for small things. If she tried to focus on something too big, it would create sparks and fly out of her hands. Besides, not everyone in the kingdom was responsible for her kidnapping, so it wouldn't be fair to make all of them disappear. She argued her case to her Fairy Godmother.

Florindia was amazed by how well Julia had learned to use the wand in such little time. She agreed to simply teleport her home instead. Florindia took back her wand and asked it to take them to the castle. Unfortunately, it only brought them a few feet away to the castle they had just escaped from. Julia asked if she could borrow the wand again so she could try, but Florindia didn't want to give it up. That was when Julia recognized her own kingdom's royal crest on the flag of an approaching carriage. She knew her father must have sent a group of knights to come rescue her. How surprised would they be to see that she had already rescued herself? Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who had recognized the flag. On the turrets of the castle, she saw some of her enemy soldiers preparing arrows and cannons to fire at the rescue party. Without thinking, Julia grabbed the wand from Florindia and made the cannonballs from the cannon and the arrowheads on the arrows turn to rubber that bounced harmlessly off the carriage.

Once again, Florindia was very impressed. This was going much better than she thought it would. She suggested taking advantage of the soldiers' confusion and changing the carriage to something that would blend in with the scenery like an elaborate palace fountain so their enemies wouldn't attack again. Julia pointed out that fountains can't move, so they would no longer be able to escape in the carriage if they did that. Instead, she changed the insignia on the flag to match the ones on the castle so their enemies would no longer think they were a threat. It worked perfectly. Unfortunately, the knights did not recognize Princess Julia at first due to her tattered dress and dirty face. Despite her protests, Florindia insisted on using magic to give her a lovely dress and crown. This drew a lot of attention from the villagers, so Julia insisted that leave immediately before anything bad happened. Upon recognizing their princess, the knights of Julia's kingdom began their long journey back to the castle.

During their travels, Florindia explained to Julia that she could never get the wand to work for her and that the other Fairy Godmothers treated her like a runt. Julia felt sorry for her Fairy Godmother and began discussing spells she could perform with the wand that would use less magic so it wouldn't fly out of her hands and cause her to lose control so often. By the time she had arrived home, Julia had impressed Florindia so much with her expertise on magic that she decided to let her keep the wand and become her own Fairy Godmother. Florindia knew that she still had a lot more to learn in the realm of magic. Julia used the wand wisely and never abused the wand's powers. Thanks to her Fairy Godmother, she never found herself in a hopeless situation again.

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